


If I can Help

by Tenoko1



Category: Dragon Quest Series, Dragon Quest XI
Genre: Angst, Coda, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fate, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Reincarnation, Sexual Content, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-07-11 02:33:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15962828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tenoko1/pseuds/Tenoko1
Summary: Series of Codas that take place within canon as the story progresses.It starts simple enough: if Erik can be a distraction from the sudden loss of everything Eleven's ever known or held dear, then that is exactly what he intends to do.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Takes place after the destruction of Cobblestone and the mission to retrieve the orb at Kingsbarrow.
> 
> Note 2: The Hero is named Eleven, much like the incarnations of the Doctors on Doctor Who, called El, for short.
> 
> Note 3: I have not finished the game and will be adding to this with scenes as I continue through the main story. Expect a lot of fluff, I'm sure, plus plenty of Hurt/Comfort.

Erik had dismissed the peddler from the campsite when they’d settled down. The old man had only to glance at Eleven’s expression before packing away his things and tottering on his way as the evening sun continued below the horizon.

    With the overgrown forest to their backs and the open field and the beach in front of them, Erik was confident enough in their safety to relax keeping watch.

    He glanced to the side. Eleven’s head was bowed and features hidden by brown hair.

    Losing everyone and everything he’d ever known so needlessly, it wasn’t as though he were in any frame of mind to be aware of their surroundings.

    Running a hair through his spikes, Erik sighed.

    While he’d wanted to go to Kingsbarrow to retrieve the orb he’d worked so hard for, and even been locked up for, he’d pressed the issue after Cobblestone only hoping to _distract_ Eleven.

    He didn’t know anything about what they were dealing with, about magic and Yggdrasil and prophecies and reincarnation. It was more complicated than he could pay mind to, so he focused on what he knew in the moment and what was in front of him. He’d followed El not because the Seer told him to, but because something in him suddenly felt at home. Like he had been holding his breath waiting and no longer had to.

    He studied him, the blue eyes a shade lighter and brighter than his own now dim and distant. The dark and quiet were heavy around them, even the waves on the shore were muted as the tide drew out, the moon hidden behind cloud cover.

    If asked, Erik never could have explained the feeling. Couldn’t explain how it felt like they’d been side-by-side their whole lives even while practical strangers. He couldn’t explain his desire-- his need-- to stay by his side for as long as Eleven would allow. Couldn’t explain how he knew that would be a very long time, perhaps their lifetimes.

    As though they had done it before.

    Or were meant to from the beginning.

    Maybe that was destiny, too, but at the moment the Luminary’s entire world had been shattered. From what he had seen, Eleven was an innocent. Raised in such a small village, he’d shown nothing but goodness and loyalty and had gone to the king of Heliodor in good faith seeking answers. Instead, he’d been thrown into prison and his hometown and everyone in it destroyed for having the misfortune of being the place and people who raised him.

    Erik couldn’t undo that.

    Couldn’t even _begin_ to understand.

    Piled on with the guilt over the people who loved and raised him, to learn they were also the people who rescued him and raised him as one of their own when found floating in a basket. They were good people. He wouldn't be so good, otherwise.

    The fire crackled, embers flying in spirals as a log shifted and fell.

    Pushing to his feet, boots muted by the hard-packed earth, he grabbed another log from the pile he’d collected earlier and added to the rest.

    El hadn’t moved.

    The urge to say something, to do something, pressed doggedly at him. It felt out of character to leave him to his silence and thoughts when so clearly hurting, and whatever temporary distraction Kingsbarrow and the orb had been, it had been fleeting. Eleven’s eyes were just as dull as when Erik had watched him leave the stone chamber like an automaton.

    Resolved, he stepped up to him, tapping the purple material of his tunic and making Eleven look up, his legs straightening out like Erik wanted.

    Wordless, he lowered himself down, knees bending so that he straddled El’s lap and settled himself there, hands lifting to card through his brown bob and cradling his head as he tried so desperately to see him beyond the despair, tried to be seen.

    Eleven blinked in surprise, brow furrowing even as his hands settled on Erik’s hips. Like instinct or habit.

    It was too familiar to be strange, too natural.

    Maybe they had done this before.

    The pad of his thumb stroked Eleven’s temple, eyes searching his face in the dim light.

    “Let me distract you.” He dragged his eyes over the lines and curves of his face, then his mouth, before meeting his eyes again. “Please.” When Eleven said nothing, Erik touched their foreheads together, his eyes sliding shut. “Just tell me you want me to distract you. Let me help. Or use me if that’s what you need, I don’t care.”

    He didn’t care. Whatever El needed or wanted, Erik wanted to give him. He wanted to ease the strain of the weight on his shoulders, and though his efforts and offers were meager, anything he could do was better than doing nothing.

    “Please,” Eleven whispered, making Erik’s eyes fly open. Blue eyes regarded him, raw and open and trusting. “Distract me.”

    Erik gladly did. With desperate, heated kisses and touches he drew sighs and pleas from that mouth he so quickly loved. Deft fingers once used for thieving, he gave new purpose, gratified by fingers in his hair and pressing into his flesh hard enough to bruise as tunics and other garments were discarded in favor of chasing something beyond the sadness.

    It felt like jumping off the cliff again, the wild, reckless daring and exhilaration.

    It didn’t matter what the morning would bring, that their journey would continue as they followed the only clues for direction they had.

    What mattered was El’s hot breath against his lips, panting and then crying out, a sound Erik greedily drank down, Eleven’s hands tight on Erik like he never wanted to let go as he sent Erik over that same edge.

    Whether or not they talked about it didn’t matter. If the morning came and they resumed their quest like nothing had happened, didn’t acknowledge it and let it be a silent memory of a day that was darker than the night, that was okay.

    Erik was okay with that because El kissed him softly, lingering. He pressed words of thanks against the skin of his throat, hands careful as they soothed over his skin, before seeking his mouth once more.

    He’d helped. That was what mattered most. The forlorn look was gone and was replaced with gratefulness and sadness mixed into one.

When morning came, the sounds of the ocean crashing on the shore was a sound filled with promise. Erik dressed and put out the remains of their fire before breathing deep the dawn air.

A touch to the back of his hand, made him look as Eleven came to stand beside him.

Without preamble, he leaned in and kissed Erik’s cheek, before pulling back to offer him a smile. “Ready?”

Erik grinned. “Adventure awaits.”

El touched his hand again before turning and heading East. “That’s a promise.”

And it absolutely felt like one, and with it, the morning brought hope.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From Hotto and hot springs to Gallopollis and gold rings, the party expands to four, and Erik has a lot of feelings and insecurity he has no idea what to do with.
> 
> Also, Veronica sees too much, but he thinks Serena is the one who knows a lot more than she lets on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! I added to this!! I will actually continue adding to this as I'm making my way through the game. I've got pages of jotted down notes I'm typing up now that I have time so expect more. As soon as I post this, I'm starting on the next one, so bookmark, subscribe, and comment! ^_^

Happening across Hotto was… interesting.

    Erik liked seeing Eleven’s reactions, the sort of innocent curiosity and wonder at the things so far and different from his home. It was helplessly endearing.

    Until the proprietor at Hotto had insisted on proper baths for them, Erik hadn’t considered it. They bathed and washed clothes in creeks and lakes near wherever they settled for the night for camp, but they avoided towns in case there were Heliodor soldiers, which meant no beds or proper baths and laundering.

    It made him self-conscious once brought to their attention. Followed by feeling foolish and ashamed he was worrying about his looks and wanting El to like them when they were embroiled in something so important. It felt vain and needy.

Erik wasn’t one for quests, even if he’d done his fair share of traveling. He’d never spent days on the road, was used to sleeping at inns in town. He appreciated clean sheets and fresh clothes, checking his appearance in the mirror and being confident in it as he styled his hair. Things he’d been denied due to necessity-- and missed greatly.

Looking at Eleven, he was again reminded that despite his quiet and lack of complaints, this was completely new to him, too. Newer to him than to Erik, since tradition forbade the villagers from leaving until they came of age.

    And, well… a bath was something they could do together, an intimacy he realized he wanted with a fervor.

    “I’ll see you in there?”

    Something in his chest warmed and flopped around like a happy kitten at the small nod Eleven gave him.

    It wasn’t like him, and he idly wondered if it hadn’t come from seeing Derk having gone straight, seeing him married and happy. On the road, that kind of life was something Erik had told himself wasn’t possible, that he couldn’t have, that having treasures and adventure were enough to keep him happy and all he needed.

    But maybe that wasn’t so, and all of this, seeing Derk, as well as whatever this was with Eleven, the inexplicable draw he felt to him, it made the dam break. Made him want, desperately and selfishly.

So, of course the universe conspired against him in the form of lost fathers and missing sisters.

After the whole fiasco and retired to the inn for the night, boys in one room, girls in the other, not a moment alone since they’d come into town, and nothing having happened between them since that night by Kingsbarrow, not even simple displays of affection between them to make it clear to Erik where they stood, he now stood in the dark by the bed El hadn’t climbed into and... he didn’t want to get in it.

He stood, hapless, clenching and unclenching his hands as he considered the clean bed waiting for him after their dinner and quick bath to wash away the day. He was exhausted, muscles making themselves known and demanding rest, but…

Floundering, Erik looked over his shoulder to the bed against the opposite wall of the small room.

Eleven regarded him in the dim light.

That was what he wanted, where Erik wanted to be. He didn’t know how to ask for it or if that was even what they were.

The vulnerability he felt must have shown on his face because a smile pulled at the corner of El’s mouth before he shifted, grabbed the edge of the blanket, and held it up in invitation.

Erik practically dove in, arm snaking around Eleven’s waist and legs tangling together.

Chin resting on Erik’s head, El hugged him closer and they both fell asleep.

 

* * *

 

When morning came, it was Veronica’s voice in the hallway that woke Erik. He’d opened his eyes to find he and Eleven still curled together, the Luminary fast asleep.

He’d extricated himself and slipped out into the hallway only so as to urge the girls to continue whatever argument they were having out in the lobby where they’d be less likely to wake him.

They’d no more made it there when El dashed downstairs, quiet alarm on his face until his eyes found Erik. The visible relief eased something inside him.

Softly, he assured, “Don’t worry, we all just woke as well.”

There was something in the way Veronica looked at them, eyes too shrewd for Erik’s comfort. Then both sisters were talking quietly and the moment passed.

If they didn’t know, he thought they suspected.

When they requested- or, well, declared- to travel with them in order to protect Eleven and help him with his quest, El had looked to him in silent question. Only after receiving Erik’s nod did he accept the offer.

Honestly, that should have prepared him for the way El always seemed willing to acquiesce to someone’s request. People were just drawn to him, especially if they needed help.

Eleven being himself, well, was always quick to agree.

As he watched him work over the forge to create a wedding ring for a complete stranger, the urge to protect him and stay by his side surged inside Erik.

An odd cause to dedicate his life to, but a cause worth serving. He could do it with a smile.

He watched El work on a ring that was enchanted to protect the wearer and wondered if there wasn’t something he could do that might help protect him in return.

 

* * *

 

In Gallopollis, everything grated on Erik’s nerves.

    He wasn’t sure if it was the heat or the sand or the way El’s gaze kept drifting into the distance. He worried there might come a day when he’d go somewhere Erik couldn’t follow.

    He would have protested helping the craven prince-- or protested more-- if he didn’t think keeping busy wasn’t also El’s way of trying to move on and not think about Cobblestone, would worry less about the danger he was putting himself in by consistently letting people take advantage of his kindness.

    Honestly, Erik wasn’t sure all of his patience and kindness weren’t driven by the desire to atone for the lives lost in Cobblestone, if there was sort of tally only El kept up with.

    “Hey, you,” Eleven greeted, fingers touching Erik’s elbow lightly.

They’d made camp outside of Gallopollis, exhausted after a long day fighting monsters and collecting supplies and minerals. Erik was standing at the edge of camp keeping watch on the dark forms scurrying around the desert, eyes tracking the larger ones as they prowled the sandy waste. The blessed statue that marked every campsite was suppose to ensure beasts stayed away, but that wasn’t a risk he’d been willing to take, so he kept watch.

Erik turned to him, tension broken and smile falling into place like it always did near him. “Hello, yourself.” His gaze slid past him to the girls. Veronica was reading and Serena had her attention focused on mending a tear in her dress. He looked at Eleven. “Shouldn’t you be resting? I know they’re tired if they’re being quiet. You must be exhausted.”

“You’re right by my side out there,” he countered, jerking his head toward the shapes roving the desert. “Shouldn’t you be exhausted?”

He regarded the night, the niggling worry persistent as ever. “I feel better keeping watch. Goddess statue can only do so much and monsters aren’t the only threats out there.” He grinned at him. “Gotta protect the Luminary, right?”

It was curious the way Eleven dropped his gaze. Maybe it was a mix of the darkness and firelight, but it almost looked as though pink had colored his cheeks.

“That’s… actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” he admitted. Erik cocked his head to the side, watching El open one of his pockets and retrieve an item, holding it out in the palm of his hand. It was a gold ring. “I wanna keep you safe.”

Erik’s face went hotter than the fire.

Barely managing aborted sounds, he looked from the ring to Eleven, then to the girls, and back.

Eleven watched him with a patient, hopeful expression as Erik’s heart thundered against his ribs and he forgot how to breathe.

Swallowing, he reached into his own pocket, hands barely trembling- which he was proud of- as he offered and opened his hand, ring sitting in the center of his palm.

El’s face lit, eyes locking with Erik’s as he shifted, nervous and embarrassed.

“I, uh, I have no talent with the forge so I had it commissioned in town.” He flicked his gaze down and then back up, feeling cracked open wide and vulnerable as he said, “I wanna keep you safe, too.”

As they exchanged the charmed golden bands, Erik was hyperly aware that the twins were no longer preoccupied with books and mending. He could feel them watching with keen interest.

His attention was ripped from their audience when Eleven put a hand on his shoulder.

“We’re safe for the night.” His hand slid down Erik’s arm, stopping only briefly to squeeze his hand before falling away. “You should rest, too.”

He could only nod dumbly in response, head buzzing and every nerve ending aware of the ring around his finger.

When he turned away from the desert, El was already rolling out his bed for the night on the opposite side of camp near the stone goddess. He met Veronica’s shuttered expression, squint falling to his hand-- the ring-- and then to the Luminary she’d sworn to protect, before returning to her book without so much as a word-- for once.

Too keyed up with adrenaline and nervous energy, Erik settled on ground on the opposite side of the fire, stilling when he met Serena’s eyes across the flames. She smiled, just like she always did. It was she who’d noticed and indicated the craftsman’s stall. Her serene but off-hand mention of commissioned pieces that made him inquire about having a ring made while she went on her way to ‘see what Veronica’s up to’.

He wondered if she knew that- the rings- was going to happen well beforehand.

Magic, fate, and reincarnation were beyond him, but…

His blue eyes slid to her sister, nose stuck in an archaic tome.

He got the feeling the two of them understood it a lot better than they let on.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please keep in mind I do not know how many of these I'll continue doing. I'm still playing the game, obviously, but time constraints.

When they met Slyvando, Erik didn’t even try to convince himself the heat, sand, and quests from strangers and craven princes had anything to do with his foul mood. Even were it not for all the blatant flirting with El-- which, bless him, El seemed completely oblivious to, just extremely puzzled by-- the way Sylvando always seemed to be inserting himself in the right place at the right time, the smirk and eye glint of someone with secrets and an angle, it made Erik uneasy. The way he, like Veronica, saw too much.

    “Two boys, two girls, how romantic.”

    Erik thought he was being mocked.

    Neither Veronica or Serena made any effort to hide that they were sisters. They looked and acted too much alike. They bickered like siblings, for sure.

    Erik glared.

    From across the campfire, Sylvando winked at him.

    It was only El touching his shoulder, hand squeezing to make him look at him, then smoothing down his back and lingering a moment that cooled Erik’s anger.

    Okay, so maybe part of it was jealousy.

    When Erik looked back, Sylvando was trying and failing to wipe away a smirk. Rolling his eyes, Erik shifted, leaning on one arm so his shoulder just barely touched El’s, and stared off into the distance, ignoring further conversation.

    Though he couldn’t see him, he still felt Sylvando’s laughter. Jester he may have been, but he held himself too straight and had eyes too sharp to ever make Erik believe he was a fool.

 

After the port city of Gondolia-- which had not been the reprieve from the heat Erik had hoped, what with having to flee it-- Erik was resting on a bed below deck when Eleven tentatively peeked around the door.

    Serena paused in helping Erik settle on the pillows, looking over her shoulder with wide, blinking eyes as El hovered, the question obvious in his face.

    She stood, withdrawing a small jar of salve she’d prepared and left it on the bedside table. “I’ll just leave this here,” she said, smiling as she patted Erik’s hand and made her way from the room. She paused at the door. “I’m sure he’d appreciate help with his injuries. Company, too,” she offered, shutting the door behind her.

    El regarded the closed door over his shoulder, before approaching the bed, long fingers curling around the jar.

    “Let me see.” Erik arched a brow. “Let me help,” he pleased, turning the full force of those big blue eyes on him.

How on earth could anyone think he was even _remotely_ evil? Man was practically a kitten with a sword who used his powers to work his way right past every defense and wall Erik had in place.

Well, that did make him a _little_ evil.

He sighed and offered a tired smile. “You’re gonna have to help get this off,” he said, plucking at his tunic.

Eleven carefully-- so, so carefully-- helped Erik remove the green garment, worried eyes playing over him and hands hovering with the impotent urge to help when Erik hissed in pain.

“I’m fine,” he assured, teeth clench and breaths shallow. He was pretty sure he’d cracked a rib or three.

When El didn’t respond, Erik opened his eyes and looked at him, feeling naked and exposed to just have El looking at him like he was. Distraught and sad and hurting. Erik wanted to shield the burn mark on his chest from his sight, the mottled bruising on his ribs and stomach from Jasper and his men.

El worked in silence, fingers feather light and careful as they smoothed ointment over Erik’s abused ribs and burned skin. It was cool in a way that had nothing to do with temperature, instantly soothing away the feeling of the feverish burn and numbing the skin.

A sigh eased out of him, head dropping back on the pillow as Eleven’s fingers painted over his skin. A shiver ran through him.

One day, he was going to demand they take a day off. Maybe a couple of days. Leave the party behind while he and El went… he didn’t care where so long as he had time alone with him again. A cabin in the woods that was quiet, where they could breathe and just _be_.

“I was…” began Eleven, making Erik lift his head again. His attention stayed focus on his task. “When you jumped in the way of the attack… I don’t remember ever being so scared-- and when I had to _leave_ you? _You_? I--:”

Erik grabbed his hand. El wouldn’t look at him. “El… there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. If it meant you getting away…”

They fell silent, hands falling away as Eleven continued to tend to his wounds with careful, reverent movements.

Once finished, he helped Erik into his tunic and settled against the pillows before El unlaced his boots and climbed onto the narrow bed beside him.

He took Erik’s hand, fingers brushing the gold band on his finger. “Regardless of whatever else happens, I can’t lose you. Don’t ask me to leave you behind again. I won’t.”

Erik sighed, settling his head against Eleven. “That’s an argument for another day.”

Eleven nodded. Erik was under no illusion he’d forget with time or that he didn’t mean what he said. He also knew he’d do it a thousand times over need be. If Jasper had killed him, his regret would have been not being able to go on protecting Eleven and making sure he made it to Yggdrasil.

He really thought they needed time for just the two of them. He was glad for the presence and support of Veronica, Serena, and Sylvando, but it felt oppressive sometimes. He wasn't use to being part of a group so large. That being said, he wasn’t sure if it was coincidence or intent, but he had noticed the others seemed to at least _try_ to afford them time whenever able, like in towns or now. Splitting off into groups of a specific pattern.

Internally, Erik chuckled over the memory that all of this started off in prison, then sex on a beach, well before the intimacy of the things that followed, nothing more than sharing a bed in an inn or like now, hands clasped as they lay beside each other.

He laughed. “You and I did everything all out of order. Not that our circumstances are comparable to other, ah, ... relationships.” He flushed red and looked at the opposite corner. For all their actions and commitment, they hadn't actually talked about what this was or put a name on it. He hadn’t meant to say it aloud.

El shifted, a lightning fast reflex he was familiar with in battle, but now landed them with Eleven straddling his lap, a reverse image of that first time, Eleven’s mouth on his, fingers in hair, Erik’s hands on his hips. It was far more intimate this time because it wasn’t sexual, just El’s open expression of blatant honesty without either of them having to say it.

“Please don’t put me through that again,” El pleaded.

“I can’t promise you that,” Erik said. “Keeping you safe… it’s bigger than me. You’re the _Luminary_ , El. And more, you’re you. I will always put myself in the way of you and danger.”

Their eyes met, El’s playing over his features and unable to deny the importance of the role they were to play if they hoped to save the world from darkness.

“Then I’ll protect you, too. We’re in this together.”

A laugh tugged at the corner of Erik’s mouth and he smirked. “You jump, I jump.”

El smiled with a single nod. “You jump, I jump.”

 

In Octagonia, Eleven stared in shock and confusion, which morphed into visible worry that Erik had entered the tournament without him knowing or even talking to him.

    The group stood in the lobby, Serena looking concerned as her eyes darted back and forth between her sister and Erik already in the middle of a heated argument by the time Eleven left the arena.

    “What was that!? She wiped the floor with you! You should be ashamed of yourself, going out in the first round!”

    “Look, I did the best I could okay, but she’s… She’s not normal!”

    “Pah! Are you sure you weren’t just _love-struck_? You looked a bit weak in the knees to me! And what with her legs flashing around like that, well…”

    “Enough, Veronica!” snapped Eleven.

    They all jerked, Veronica stilling like a rabbit that knew it had been spied by a fox.

    Serena gasped, hands to her mouth. “Veronica, it’s them!” she hissed, making all of them look.

    The tall masked woman and old man glided easily, people seeming to make room for them. He wasn’t sure what it was that permeated the air around them, made them so mysterious and intriguing at the same time, but El couldn’t stop the sense that he knew them somehow. It had been nagging him since he’d first seen them. Erik’s assessment that she wasn’t normal was right, they stood out and above, but the dogged sense Eleven knew them if he could only think hard enough was maddening.

    “I’d keep an eye on your partner,” she warned, low enough only he could hear, steps pausing half a heartbeat as their eyes met, before she and the man with her had passed them and were gone.

    “Look,” Erik sighed, “it was impulsive and last minute. Odds seemed better to win with more people in the draw.” El turned to them. Erik with slumped shoulders and Veronica standing with her hands on her hips. He gestured to El. “It’s not like we could sign up as a _team--_ I’d have preferred that.”

    “Then you’d have both lost,” she sneered, nose in the air, “if you were such a poor excuse for a partner in your _own_ match.”

    “ _Veronica_ ,” Serena admonished, swatting in reprimand and the two sisters glaring at each other.

    El sighed, rubbing at his temple. He indicated Veronica. “ _Enough_. Drop it.” He slid a glance to Erik. “Talk to me next time. I don’t like these kind of surprises. I’m gonna go check on Vince before tomorrow’s match.”

 

Honestly, Sylvando ending up in the ring? Not a surprise. At all. That he wouldn’t tell them and ‘ruin the performance’ wasn’t a surprise either. He was all about putting on a show. Though, to anyone else? The way he threw the match might have been believable. El could only regard him in bafflement. To have made it so far just to lose on purpose.

    Sylv stood dramatically, hand to forehead. “Oh, what a disgrace! But I assure you, darling, you did wonderful! It’s no wonder you triumphed as you did!”

    Smile pulling at the corner of his mouth, Eleven countered, “Syv… we fight with you daily. We know what you’re capable of and it’s certainly more than being knocked down and out in two rounds. Even against me.”

    A gasp of mock scandal and delight sparking in dark eyes was the only response he got before subject shifted and they had more pressing concerns to deal with.

 

A kingdom under the sea and known as Nautica.

    Freaking what the fuck were their lives?

    Also, the queen? _Beautiful_.

    Y’know. For being part fish.

 

 

Erik felt their story so far was filled with tragedy and loss, only making him nervous the farther they pushed and went that the same tragedy loomed larger and more terrible over their heads. What, if in all the threats against them, he lost El?

At least, he consoled himself, he was not protecting the Luminary alone-- even if they were a motley and mismatched bunch to be sure.

Jade seemed much more capable than Rab, no offense to the old man, but the truth nonetheless. For all her cool exterior, though, he hadn’t expected to find out her affinity for cats. If ever he were to go searching for her in town, Erik was always sure to find her wherever a cat may be, feeding them in alleys and scratching under their chin as they purred.

When she’d initially joined, Erik had worried-- he noticed he did that a lot nowadays-- about El’s reaction to her, if she might be attracted to him or, worse, him attracted to her and that _this_ , born from circumstance and when it had just been the two of them, might end now that El’s world was expanding.

But she only saw Eleven as a brother long lost, even called him her baby brother.

At camp, Rab asked Eleven about having a girlfriend, making Erik freeze and rankle, coiled tight where he sat by the fire unsure how Eleven might answer his grandfather.

As a monarch, Rab would undoubtedly expect his grandson to find a wife and have future heirs, despite not having a kingdom of their own anymore.

Were circumstances different, would El and Erik have ever even happened or been allowed? Or would a prince take a wife, but keep another as consort waiting in the shadows?

He knew Veronica and Serena were waiting and listening because their conversation had suddenly lulled off. Slyv was watching because she was always watching and never missed a thing, eyes hooded and shrewd. Knowing whose side they would all immediately take to made him swell with affection and fondness for each other, despite all their differences.

Rab may have been El’s grandfather but he was also a stranger. What would his reaction be to Eleven and Erik? Treat it as a flighty affair and dismiss it? Would it cause tension and derision between them, the only living blood relatives they had left?

He could see the same panic and questions whirling in El’s wide blue eyes, mouth working on words he wasn’t sure how to say to a man he didn’t know.

He was spared from answering as Rab launched into tales of his younger days and being chased by the opposite sex. Erik watched the sigh of relief that escaped him, their eyes meeting across the fire and smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. Serena and Veronica’s conversation picked up and Erik smiled at Eleven in return, tight and strained.

Another discussion for another day.

They were heading to Sniflheim next, a nightmare of cold and snow. He turned his thoughts to that, about how much he was _not_ looking forward to what was to come, and tried to shut out the voice reminding him this could be only temporary at best. That a story of love between a theif and a prince could not end happy, and that was only if they managed to save the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Please be sure to comment and kudos.
> 
> Writers don't write fic if they feel there is no one to read them. And if no one reads them, no one writes them. Feed and water something if you want it to grow.


End file.
